Scholarly Interests

Selected Publications

Wells, A.S.; Fox, A.L.; and Miles, A. (forthcoming). "Longing for Milliken: Why Rodriguez Would Have Been Good but Not Enough." In K. J. Robinson and C. Ogletree (Eds) Rodriguez at 40: Exploring New Paths to Equal Educational Opportunity. New York, NY: New York University Press.

Wells, A.S., Holme, J.J., Revilla, A.J., & Atanda, A.K. (2008). Both Sides Now: The Story of School Desegregation's Graduates. University of California Press.

Holme, J. J. & Wells, A.S. (2008). "School Choice Beyond District Borders: Lessons for the Reauthorization of NCLB from Interdistrict Desegregation and Open Enrollment Plans" In Richard Kahlenberg (Ed.) Improving on No Child Left Behind. New York, NY: The Century Foundation.

Wells, A.S. (2008). "The Social Context of Charter Schools: The Changing Nature of Poverty and What it Means for American Education." In Matthew G.Springer, Herbert J. Walberg, Mark Berends, and Dale Ballou (Eds.) Handbook of Research on School Choice. Philadelphia, PA: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Centers and Projects

The Hechinger Institute exists to equip journalists with the knowledge and skills they need to produce fair, accurate and insightful reporting. Since its launch in 1996, the institute has sponsored more than 63 seminars for journalists who write, editorialize or edit coverage of education.

More than 1,800 journalists have attended Hechinger Institute seminars, which feature top education experts, including faculty from Teachers College. Held at Teachers College and throughout the U.S., Hechinger seminars are designed to create an intimate, salon-like atmosphere in which all of the participants and presenters are encouraged to participate.

The institute also produces primers and publications on timely topics in education, from covering higher education to understanding teachers unions. The institute maintains a website with resources related to seminar topics along with a blog on early childhood issues. In 2007, the institute is sponsoring "Covering America, CoveringCommunity Colleges" a fellowship designed to encourage and promote in-depth coverage of community colleges for print and broadcast reporters, online and editorial writers.

The Hechinger Institute's director is Richard Lee Colvin, the former lead education writer for the Los Angeles Times who spent much of his career writing about education for newspapers in California. The assistant director is Liz Willen, a former education writer for Newsday and Bloomberg News.

The institute is supported by a variety of private philanthropies, including the John S. and James Knight Foundation, the Broad Foundation, the Pew Charitable Trusts, the Joyce Foundation, The Ford Foundation, The Wallace Foundation, Harold W. McGraw Jr., chairman emeritus of the McGraw-Hill Companies, the Cotsen Family Foundation, the Lumina Foundation for Education and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. It is named in memory of Fred M. Hechinger, a former education editor of the New York Times and a trustee of Teachers College.